At the risk of paraphrasing both Oprah Winfrey and Donald Rumsfeld, I begin with an admission my detractors will love, largely because — like me — they not only might not know much about much and, more importantly, might not know what they don’t know. I, for instance, think I know what I kno…
There is nothing better than jumping in a cool lake on a hot summer day. For most of us living in Vermont, even with temperatures reaching into the 90’s, we can find ways to keep cool. But for most of the United States and countries around the world, the fact that July 2019 was the hottest m…
I attended the Aug. 5 Rutland City Board of Aldermen meeting. I appreciated the newspaper coverage of the “Across the Fence” portion of that meeting which focused on the issue of racism in this area. I thank Kate Barcellos for a good article; however, I would like to note one line in the pie…
Congress is finally taking steps to end surprise medical billing, a longstanding issue that, for years, has caused needless stress and financial woes for Vermont patients, as well as patients across the country.
This is the time of the gun, a sickness in our country that is taking the lives of the innocent. It is also a time of reckoning for gun owners.
This past spring, the Lake Champlain Chamber of Commerce surveyed 500 young professionals, primarily Burlington area residents between the ages of 22 and 34, and learned that over 40 percent intend to leave Vermont. Now, we can put some faces on those statistics. Taylor Dobbs, 29, a prominen…
As chief financial officer of Vermont Electric Cooperative, my primary job is to manage the cooperative’s financial well-being. As an electric cooperative, our members are also our owners. We work for the interests of our members without the pressure from investors to be more profitable.
Early educators are responsible for preparing young children for lifelong health, wellness and learning. I have a hard time imagining a more important job. And so, it was not at all surprising to discover nearly 9 out of 10 voters — across political parties and demographics — believe early c…
The report released this week by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington names 40 priests accused of sexually abusing children in Vermont since 1950. Many of them were long-serving and notable within their communities.
I would like to address the editorial presented the other day by Vermont GOP Party chairperson Deb Billado. With all due respect, Ms. Billado, are you nuts? What color is the sky in your world?
I’ll say one thing for Deb Billado’s Tuesday commentary — she got the headline right.
Are buses becoming obsolete? Fixed-route bus ridership has been on the decline for years but customized service requiring 24-hour reservation is increasing but costly. With taxpayers subsidizing 80-90 cents for every operating dollar spent and 100% of the capital costs, more innovation is ne…
President Trump canceled a trip to Denmark this week because they won’t sell Greenland.
The American Medical Association's Journal on Pediatrics has just published a study linking low levels of fluoride exposure, during fetal development, to lower IQ in children.
Vermont media coverage of so-called white nationalists is becoming annoying. These individuals are hungry for attention and the media is giving them plenty of it.
If I may, a brief note from myself to everyone. Looking back on the anniversary of the Woodstock Music and Arts Fair held in Bethel, New York, in 1969, 50 years ago today, I find myself checking in retrospective, my own life in the past 50 years.
I know now I can't vote for Donald Trump for the presidency, now after his pronouncement that mentally ill people are the cause of mass shootings. This demonizing of a person or group of people has been his trademark. Enough is enough.
We agree with the recent letters from State Sen. Joe Benning (July 26) and Rutland resident Hurley Cavacas (July 31) about the need for civil political conversations and the harm to our society from political polarization.
The headline last week and this week [as of Friday, Aug. 16] was designed to catch your attention, but it is only true in the eyes of those on the left who cannot accept that [President Donald Trump] was elected by the will of the American voter or that he has done an amazing job in his thre…
The year 1850 was good for the Pleasant Hill Plantation in Amite County, Mississippi. Overseer Eli J. Capell, a diligent and responsible employee, kept meticulous financial records of production, revenues, expenses, investments, etc. At year’s end, he itemized the plantation’s holdings of “N…
In this case, think before gobbling.
I first read Toni Morrison as a junior in college, and once I started “Beloved” I knew I would never look at another book the same way again.
In the wake of horrendous mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, leading political figures are once again demanding sweeping measures of gun control.
Last week when the president made his trip to Dayton, Ohio, in the wake of the mass shooting there, he was met by chanting protesters. Their demands he “Do Something” are a cry for real change, for concrete steps to stop the killing, beyond sending thoughts and prayers.
Most of us grew up associating special events with patron characters — Christmas and Santa Claus — loose change under our pillows and the Tooth Fairy, or a dysfunctional Senate and Mitch McConnell. The new school term belongs to public education’s patron, the Emperor.
Recent repeated instances of terrorist mass murder in our country have made it mandatory we enact legislation to fix the issue and ultimately save our society as we know it.
The NRA is half right about one thing. Guns don’t kill people. But the NRA leaves out the second half of the truism, which is: Young men with guns kill people. The brute fact is that 99% of the mass shootings in the United States are perpetrated by young men. Yes, we have a gun problem, and …
Change, it has been said, is the only constant. Certainly, it’s been around since before one-celled organisms began the long process whose current results we see all around us. I use “current” because we humanoids — let alone giraffes, salmon and poison ivy — are hardly the culmination of th…
A report earlier this summer by the Public Utility Commission makes an aggressive push toward the ownership and use of electric vehicles around Vermont.
I have to say I find myself outraged that a nation founded on the ideal "all men are created equal and endowed with certain rights" is now under attack by a movement claiming the white race in America is endangered by the presence of people with a different skin pigmentation.
Responses to the three recent mass shootings in El Paso, Dayton and Gilroy, in which gunmen used assault-style semi-automatic weapons to kill 32 people and wound at least 66 others, followed the usual script.
We long for change. We are uneasy in the prickles of our dissatisfaction. We are confused by the wild complexity of this world around us. We live in chaos and in chaotic times. We strive for simple moments of comfort and understanding.
The Alzheimer's Association Walk to End Alzheimer's is the world's largest event to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer's care, support and research. I will be joining participants of all ages in the fight against the disease at the Walk to End Alzheimer's on Sept. 7 at Main Street Park …
Many things make me proud to live in the Rutland region, but recently two great community efforts have proven exactly how much a group of civic-minded locals can accomplish. The path at Northwood Park, which was littered with logging debris after a winter logging project, was beautifully cle…
The Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 along party lines recently to change long-standing guidelines related to cable franchising fees. The modifications detrimentally affect one of educational media’s great unsung heroes, Public, Educational and Government, or PEG, access televisio…
The police shooting in Montpelier of a man deemed mentally ill by his neighbors and friends is a stark reminder of the crisis so many of us face in such tumultuous times.
Our committee (Brittany, Nicole, Kevin, Erron, Chuck, Ricky, Dan and myself) wanted to send out a big thank you to all of the local organizations/vendors, volunteers, first responders and participants for their support of the 2019 National Night Out event this past Tuesday [Aug. 6].
I worked as an intern in the Rutland Herald newsroom this summer, and the experience was an excellent crash course in local journalism.
Greta Thunberg is a 16-year-old Swedish schoolgirl who, for the past year, instead of attending school, has spent every Friday sitting in front of the Swedish Parliament building with a sign that says: “Strike for Climate.”
The state's juvenile detention facility in Essex Junction is again in the news. This time, a judge ordered a bunch of changes and set time limits. Restraints, isolation and mentally ill juveniles are the new court-ordered issues.
We are coming up on the fifth anniversary of the Rutland Plywood fire, on Aug. 21, 2014, a day that changed a lot of people's lives.
Everyone praises attempts by individual citizens to reduce their carbon footprints by reducing their consumption of goods and thus, the production of goods. I know that from personal experience. No one objects even though those attempts reduce our city’s, state’s, nation’s and world’s GDP.
I am in favor of renovating the cottages at Lowell Lake and returning them to overnight service. I am also in favor of the event barn. Lowell Lake is an artificial lake (resort) that has hosted visitors in its cottages and buildings from the 1880s through the 1980s. From 1980 on, after the r…
Grover Norquist’s rather unpleasant concept of “the bathtub” remains a central tenet of the national Republican Party. And the consequences of employing it (the bathtub) as Norquist famously fantasized in an interview on National Public Radio in 2001 are demonstrated with each effort in that…
I encourage all to come to the fair this year. The Vermont State Fair runs from Tuesday, the 13th of August, to Saturday, the 17th of August.
